Oh Canada

I got my trainee this week!! She is from Canada in fact which is super cool. She says fun things like "wash room" instead of "bath room" and plays rugby. She likes to cook which is lucky for me. She has a lot of excitement about missionary work and wants to work hard. Its going to be an awesome transfer.

Got to spend a couple days in Tirana while waiting to get my trainee and it was fun to serve with Motra Wilding from my MTC group for that. We took the new missionaries on on their first teaching experience. I didn't know the area and couldn't find the person we were suppose to teach at first so we went tracking. They did really well and seemed to like it. We finally found the lady in the last 15 minutes and so we taught her a really quick lesson. I'm so impressed with this new group. I reminds me so much of how I felt at the beginning. It has also really helped me realize how far I have come. 

I remember one of the hardest things when I first had my mini missionary was to speak Albanian in the morning because you're still half asleep. Unexpectedly its been an interesting change back. I remember one of the first mornings going right into Albanian before realizing that she may not be understanding what I'm saying. Sometimes still in lessons or other times I'll still talk to her in Albanian expecting her to understand before remembering that for MY entire first transfer I hardly understood anything. But we've set some good SYL (speak your language) goals and I think that will help her understanding a lot. This is a completely different training experience but I'm really excited.

The area is good (still in Lushnje) we have a lot of young investigators but they are awesome. Tea, one of the members here, has been helping us a lot with lessons which is really helpful (I still don't understand everything/speak perfectly). She taught us this penguin dance which may sound funny but I really like it. You should probably look it up right now. Albaninan penguin dance...not sure what will come up..

The are a lot of exciting things that are going to happen in this next year for Albania. They are "penciled in" to become a stake in March which is huge! To have a patriarch will be such a blessing to these people. Also, the Rome temple should be finished in October which will be so much closer for the members here. They might even be able to have a youth temple trip (I hope and pray) that would be so good and exciting for them. We have a lot of really excellent youth that have such strong desires so go but not the opportunity. The work here is hastening I'm excited to be a part of it. The church is true!!

Ju dua!

Motra Curtis